


on a blue and green marble (we circle the sun)

by Meatball42



Series: Rare Pairs [95]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Post-Episode: s04e13 Journey's End, Psychological Trauma, Recovery, The Year That Never Was (Doctor Who)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-12 16:47:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19949563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/pseuds/Meatball42
Summary: “We’d love to have you at Torchwood, Martha. And I’d feel a lot better if you were nowhere near UNIT.”Her instinct was to decline, but the care on Jack's face made her hesitate. She tried to remember the last time she’d seen any of her superiors show honest concern for another member of UNIT, or God forbid a civilian.“Yeah,” Martha said slowly. “I think I’d like that.”





	on a blue and green marble (we circle the sun)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heartbeatstumbles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartbeatstumbles/gifts).



After the emotional rollercoaster of the previous few days, not to mention the lingering sadness of leaving the Doctor, Martha Jones really could have done without the hysteria that was Jack Harkness when he couldn’t contact his team.

“Dammit!” The useless mobile was snapped shut with enough force that it shut itself off, which only caused Jack to growl and hit the power button furiously. The cabbie, already on edge from his instructions to drive to Cardiff ‘as fast as humanly possible, faster if you can manage it,’ sneaked a look at them in the rearview mirror as though he was on the verge of kicking out the crazies. Martha snatched the phone from Jack’s hand before he could dial Ianto or Gwen for the dozenth time.

“Jack, you need to calm down. Gwen and Ianto can take care of themselves, I’m sure they’re fine.” His eyes were still wild, so Martha grabbed his hand tightly until his breathing started to settle. “Getting worked up like this isn’t going to help anyone.”

“I know,” he sighed, finally getting a hold of himself. “I know. It’s just… Daleks.”

“We stopped them,” Martha murmured. A quick glance at the cabbie showed he was vitally interested in the mostly empty highway ahead of them. “End of the World Survivor’s Club, yeah? Nothing can stop us.”

That won her a bit of a smile, and just like that, the lonely, fearful man she knew all too well was gone and Jack Harkness was back in his place. “Voice of a Nightingale,” he remarked. “My voice of reason once again. Thank you, Martha Jones.” He raised her hand, still curled around his, to his lips and gave it a gentle kiss.

Martha tried not to give away her embarrassment, but Jack’s rich chuckle said she probably hadn’t been successful.

And like that, despite everything, it was Martha and Jack against the universe again, and she knew that everything would be alright.

* * *

Martha paced the conference room of Torchwood headquarters, valiantly resisting the urge to chuck her mobile across the room. She managed to sit down at the conference table just as Jack entered with a bag of Chinese food. The captain raised his eyebrows. “Something wrong?”

“Lieutenant Rankin is insisting I fulfill my contract with UNIT. As if it’s not procedure to have a psychological evaluation and option to transfer after being involved with disasters like this!”

“We’ll take care of it,” Jack said firmly. “I’ll make a call-”

“No, thanks though,” Martha interrupted, sighing. “I don’t want to start some stupid power struggle between Torchwood and UNIT, particularly not now.” She gazed out the conference window at the mess that remained in the Hub from the Daleks and the effects of using the Rift. “We’ve got enough mess to deal with as it is.”

Jack glanced up from the cartons of much-needed sustenance he was laying out. “There is a lot of work to be done in Cardiff,” he agreed. “The localized quake did enough damage, not to mention that the Rift didn’t exactly like being used as a tow-rope. And without a tech or a medical officer, we’re severely understaffed.”

Martha narrowed her eyes, but when she turned to Jack, he was looking thoughtfully into his Chinese. Only after a few seconds of silence did he look up at her with an innocent expression.

She cracked a grin. “Jack Harkness being subtle. Never thought I’d see the day.”

“I’ve got lots of surprises.” He winked. Then, with a more serious expression, “We’d love to have you at Torchwood, Martha. And I’d feel a lot better if you were nowhere near UNIT.”

Her instinct was to decline, but the care on Jack's face made her hesitate. She tried to remember the last time she’d seen any of her superiors show honest concern for another member of UNIT, or God forbid a civilian.

“Yeah,” Martha said slowly. “I think I’d like that.”

* * *

They settled on a temporary placement so that Martha could help Torchwood through the crisis zone and choose where she wanted to stay long-term. For two weeks, Martha went out on missions with either Jack or Gwen, or stayed at the Hub with Ianto to perform autopsies and lab work. She did more field work in those weeks than in the last year with UNIT, and it felt like something inside of her that had frozen long ago was finally thawing.

Martha pondered what that thing was over a glass of the very nice brandy Jack had stashed in his office. It was after one of those days that never seemed to end and left her tired enough to sleep in Jack’s surprisingly uncomfortable visitor’s chair.

Despite it all, or perhaps because of it all, she felt wonderful.

“It’s the running,” Jack told her with a nostalgic smile. “Once you start, you never feel right if you’re not chasing after something. Or getting chased,” he joked.

“But I’ve been working.” Martha shook her head and took another sip. “Why is it so different here?”

“Maybe Torchwood is a better fit for you than UNIT.”

“I think it is. I just wish I knew why.”

Jack looked at her as though he were trying to puzzle her out, and Martha let him. “I haven’t seen you making any calls to friends back in London.”

“I couldn’t.” She downed the rest of her drink in one big gulp and wrinkled her nose. “I see the way they hold themselves, or sometimes the way they hold their weapons and I remember… UNIT had a big part in the resistance, but a lot of them were on his side.” She looked up and found that Jack’s expression was calm and intent. He was listening, but not overly disturbed from talking about their mutual experience. “I never know which of them tried to help me, and which of them wanted me dead.” She fiddled with her empty glass. “And even with the good guys, the ones I could swear would never join him… even being there makes me tense, sometimes.”

Jack’s face told her that he knew exactly how she felt before he even opened his mouth. “I haven’t spoken to UNIT since last year. Let Ianto talk to them instead. We’ve gotten a lot more done that way, now that I think of it.”

Martha smiled softly.

“You’re not worried that I’ll be too much of a reminder?” He spread his hands. “I won’t be offended if it’s too much.”

He was telling the truth, Martha knew, and had to swallow back a surge of emotion. “You’re my friend, Jack,” she said, voice suddenly rough.

“I was on television once a week,” Jack murmured, eyes focused through the top of his desk. “Every time you saw me was with him, and with a lot of violence. I’ll understand if the association is too much.”

Martha stood, a little wobbly from the booze, but nothing she couldn’t handle, and stepped determinedly around the desk, forcing him to tear his gaze away from something that no longer ever existed.

“You want to know what I associate with you, Jack Harkness?” she demanded. For an instant there was a mix of worry and fear in his face, and she forced herself to settle. “For that entire, terrible year, I had to meet miserable people, people with practically no food, practically no medical care, and absolutely no hope, and I had to try and convince them to keep going. To not give up. You know how I did that?”

“You told them about the Doctor,” he answered when the pause got too long for a rhetorical question.

“Yeah, I did. But I also told them about you.”

Jack’s forehead crinkled and his lips parted in question.

“Well, I told them about an alien, one who wasn’t evil. An alien man with the power to heal, who let the Master hurt him so that he wouldn’t hurt others.” Martha swallowed, failing to hold back the tears that came hand-in-hand with her memories. “A man who’d traveled the universe with the Doctor, just like me, and who believed in him so much that he kept on healing himself, every week, on those horrible broadcasts. I associate you with _hope,_ Jack, because seeing what you went through every week convinced people that the Doctor would come through in the end, because _you_ believed so much.”

Jack was shaking his head. “I had no idea.” He stood up and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“I know,” she said, and he was so close that it felt natural to lean forward those few inches and kiss him.

Jack’s hands were warm on her cheeks, his back warm under her palms. His mouth was smiling and gentle and perfect against hers. For a minute, that warmth was enough, but then she leaned in closer, letting her tongue press against his lips and meet his, and the spark was there that she hadn't felt with anyone else for a long time. As Jack pulled their bodies together and a quiet moan- she didn’t know who from- vibrated in her mouth, Martha realized that what she’d been missing was being with someone who knew the darkness in her past and understood what it made her.

The epiphany made her pull back. She looked up at Jack with an excited smile, and without even knowing what she was thinking, he smiled back, just as wonderfully alive as always.

“I think Torchwood is the right place for me,” she said simply.

“I think you’re right,” Jack said, and kissed her again.


End file.
